Old Testament · Prophets

Isaiah chapter 10

Devastation waits for those who draft , who write into every decree—to deny their day in court, to steal justice from the crushed among my people, to make their plunder and orphans their prey.What will you do on the day of , when the comes from far away? Who will you run to for help? Where will you hide your wealth?Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slaughtered. Even after all this, . .Watch — , the of my anger! The club in their hand is my fury.I send him against a nation, I dispatch him against a people who enrage me— to seize their plunder, to strip them bare, to trample them like mud in the streets.But that is not what Assyria intends. That is not what its heart has in mind. Its heart is set on , on cutting down nation after nation.“Aren’t my each a king?” he says.“Isn’t like ? Isn’t like ? Isn’t like ?”“My hand has reached the kingdoms of , whose carved images outnumbered Jerusalem’s and Samaria’s.”“Won’t I do to Jerusalem and her what I did to Samaria and hers?”But when Yahweh has finished all his work on and Jerusalem, he will turn and punish the king of Assyria for his and his haughty stare.For he says: “By the strength of my own hand I did this, by my own wisdom — because I am . I erased the borders of peoples, I plundered their treasuries, and like a bull I trampled their rulers.”“My hand found the wealth of nations like a . Like gathering abandoned eggs, I gathered the whole earth— and not a wing fluttered, not a beak opened, not a chirp was heard.”Does the boast over the one who swings it? Does the saw exalt itself above the one who pulls it? As if a rod could wave the hand that lifts it! As if a staff could raise what is not made of wood!And so Yahweh, the , will send a through Assyria’s well-fed warriors, and under their glory a fire will be kindled— a fire that burns and burns.The will become a fire, a flame, and it will burn and consume Assyria’s thorns and thistles in a single day.He will destroy the glory of Assyria’s forest and farmland, both , the way a sick man wastes away.What remains of the trees in his forest will be so few a child could count them.On that day, the of Israel, the survivors of , will never again lean on the one who struck them. They will lean on Yahweh, the One Like No Other in Israel, and mean it.A — a remnant of Jacob — to the .For though your people Israel are as many as the , only a remnant of them will return. Destruction has been decreed — overflowing with .For Yahweh, the Commander of angel armies, will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land.Therefore this is what Yahweh, the Commander of angel armies, says: “My people who live in , do not be afraid of Assyria when they strike you with a rod and raise their staff against you, .”“In just a little while, my fury against you will end, and my anger will turn to their destruction.”Yahweh, the Commander of angel armies, will raise a whip against them like the time he struck . He will lift his staff over the waters the way he did in Egypt.On that day, his burden will fall from your shoulder, his from your neck. The yoke will be shattered because of .He has come to , passed through , stored his supplies at .They have crossed the pass. “We’ll camp at Geba for the night,” they say. Ramah trembles. has fled.Scream, ! Listen, Laishah! Poor !Madmenah is running away. The people of Gebim scramble for cover.This very day he will halt at . He will shake his fist at the mountain of , the hill of Jerusalem.Look — Yahweh, the Commander of angel armies, is with terrifying power. The tallest trees are being cut down. The loftiest are brought low.He will hack through the thickets of the forest with iron, and — with all its — will fall.